Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Review: Can You Trust a Cowboy? by K.R. Bailey

Can You Trust a Cowboy? by K. R. Bailey

Publisher: Siren-Bookstrand PublishingGenre: Western Romance

Heat Rating: 3

Blurb

Tricia Beaumont, a hard-driving truck driver, owns Beaumont Trucking. When Tricia delivers rock at the job site of JTW and Sons, she’s unprepared for the sparks that fly when she meets Cowboy, the handsome business owner.

Westman Enterprises is wealthy enough to buy whatever they want, and they want Beaumont Trucking or the payment of a million dollars. Tricia stumbles on to an old contract signed by her father and realizes this is not something that is going away. Tricia’s office and trucks are vandalized, files go missing and her tires are slashed. Someone is out to destroy her, and she suspects Westman Enterprises is responsible.

When she learns that Cowboy hasn’t been totally truthful, what she thought was a blossoming relationship turns into a nightmare. Can she learn to trust the man in the black Stetson amidst deception and half-truths, when violence threatens to destroy her world?

This fabulous romantic mystery by K.R. Bailey is a true winner in my opinion. She drops just enough crumbs to keep you on the edge of your seat, trying to guess who the bad guy is, until the very end.

Tricia Beaumont inherited her father’s trucking company when he died five years earlier. Having grown up, working as a driver, she’s always been ‘one of the guys.’ Now as the boss lady, she’s lost the camaraderie she had with the men, but that doesn’t stop her from running the company efficiently and professionally. She’s a no-nonsense, intelligent woman who can handle men as well as she can handle a big rig. She’s not afraid to trade innuendoes with any guy – drivers or clients for that matter. Wes a.k.a. ‘Cowboy’ is a contractor who hires her company to deliver some gravel. He never expected to find such a beautiful, sexy, sassy woman, driving the truck, let alone the owner of the company.

Tricia and Wes are immediately attracted to each other, and that scares the hell out of both of them. Having each been scorned by past lovers, neither is ready or willing to get their heart stomped on again. What starts as a one-night stand turns into something much more, faster than Tricia can dump a load of gravel.
But when Tricia’s company is vandalized and threatened to be bought out by the big, bad Westman Enterprises, she turns to Wes for loving to take her mind off of her problems. The sex is hot, steamy and leaves the reader wanting more. Each time she talks about her business problems, Wes tenses up, leading Tricia to believe that he’s hiding something, but she doesn’t know what.

She’s blindsided when she discovers his true identity at a board meeting with Westman Enterprises, when his father Joseph Westman introduces him as Thomas Westman, the man who is about to become the next CEO and owner of Westman Enterprises.

Feeling betrayed beyond belief, Tricia immediately assumes that Wes is behind the vandalism, and refuses to even talk to him.

Frustrated Wes confronts his father to find out exactly why Tricia’s company is so important to him. When he learns the shocking truth, he tries to convince Tricia of his innocence, but she refuses to listen to him. When the real bad guy goes after Tricia, is she willing to trust Wes with her life?

K. R. really creates some truly believable characters in Tricia and Wes. The reader yearns to believe that Wes is innocent, but his flimsy excuse of being afraid that if he told Tricia his true identity, she’d want to keep things professional, just doesn’t fly. But the reader has to be impressed with the character of Tricia, written by K. R. as such an ultimate alpha female.

It’s hard to tell what is more intriguing, the scrumptiously steamy romance, or the edge of your seat, who-done-it mystery. Can You Trust a Cowboy gets a heat rating of 3 and earns 5 Tea Cups.